I have recently went back to Weight Watchers for the 3rd time. I did it way back in 2009 when I wanted to lose weight for our wedding which I documented on my old blog here. I kept it off pretty well despite two babies but returned in August 2016. I wanted to lose over a stone, which I did, and I reached my goal in October 2016. I managed to stay roughly the same for a year or so until after Christmas when we just got a bit lazy with the food and despite still doing a lot of exercise it’s really about the food for me.

So 3rd time lucky and I rejoined at my old meeting and weigh-in on a Tuesday night, which now has a new leader who I had been chatting with on Instagram beforehand. I post all of my food and progress on my WW instagram (@whatgaynordidnext_ww) to keep it separate from my personal instagram (@whatgaynordidnext) but I want to keep a note of my progress here as well. My goal weight is 10 stone and I have 4 other mini goals to reach along the way.

I have done a full week of counting and tracking my smart points (sp) and as it’s now a different program called Flex this has meant learning slightly new points values for things and some (like chicken, fish, eggs & low fat natural yogurt) have been made 0sp which is a massive change. I got weighed on Tuesday night at the meeting and I have managed to lose 3lbs in my first week. I am really glad I seem to have been able to adapt to the new plan and will hopefully be successful going forward.

Start Weight {01.05.18} – 12st 4lbs [172lbs]

Week 1 {08.05.18} -3lbs

Current Weight {08.05.18} – 12st 1lb [169lbs]

Total Loss = 3lbs

Mini Goals to Target:

5% [-9lbs]

1 Stone [-14lbs]

10% [-18lbs]

2 Stone [-28lbs]

Target Weight – 10st [140lbs]

The first time I did Weight Watchers in 2009 I lost 43lbs and last time in 2016 I lost 24.5lbs so I know I can do it and that the plan works for me. This time I will just need to work on learning to maintain better once I eventually reach my goal, especially over our winter!

I use the Meetings plus Online & App plan as I prefer to have someone else to weigh me. The app is used to track all your points and there are also loads of recipes on there and you can build your own recipes and find out the points too. There is also a barcode scanner which is great when you are the supermarket.

We intend to visit my sister in Dubai later on this year so I am determined to get back down to the size I was when we went a year ago so that I can wear all the clothes I bought and don’t have to buy a new summer wardrobe. Wish me luck!

As you know from my last post we spent the first week of the Easter break on holiday in Iceland for 4 nights. This meant we actually managed to get some photos of all four of us taken (mostly by other tourists at some of the sites) that weren’t selfies, although there were still a fair few of those.

Now we are home I am keen to get our next adventure planned which will be a trip to see my sister in Dubai but we also have a long weekend in the Lake District planned with friends and Disneyland Paris booked for Eden’s birthday next year.

Seljalandsfoss WaterfallAt the Perlan Museum in ReykjavikInside a Lava TunnelOur trip in Selfies!

We spent the first week of the Easter break on holiday in Iceland for 4 nights. We had an incredible trip seeing so many of the amazing sights and lots of time spent together. It was very very cold but we were all wrapped up, as you can see, and the kids had a great time! Holden has gone back to school this morning with a written list of all the things we saw and did.

Ready to board!Exploring caves at Seljalandsfoss WaterfallBasalt columns at Reynisfjara Black Sand BeachSnowballs at Gullfoss WaterfallSnow at Strokkur GeysirClutching their new purchases!Ready to explore a Lava TunnelBye Iceland!

Thankfully they are used to me taking photos so were quite happy to pose when required. I will also be sharing our full trip to Iceland on the blog soon.

Its no secret that we love Disney in our family and I have written a couple of trip reports on another forum that I’m going to share here. First up was our trip to Disneyland Paris in March last year which I started by sharing our plans.

17th March 2017

With 19 days to go until our trip to DLP, I thought I would start writing my first ever pre-trip report! We last went in February 2016 for my son’s 4th birthday on a fantastic deal but as a few of the attractions were closed, we wanted to return sometime in 2017 for the 25th anniversary. My son will start school this august so we also ideally wanted to go before then if we could. We have a bigger trip to Dubai and Hong Kong planned for May this year so we didn’t want this to be an expensive one.

Cast:

There are 6 of us going; me, my husband Graham, our son Holden (5), our daugher Eden (2) and my parents. Here we all are last February at DLP.

Plan:

In November 2016 we saw the offer for 30% discount and free half board. We priced up the end of March before the schools finish for Easter and were delighted with 4 nights at the Santa Fe in a standard room including half board for £493.50 from Monday to Friday. This was booked with The Walt Disney Travel Company. We have stayed there twice before and it’s perfect for us as we are barely in the hotel, we can walk to the parks easily and my son loves the theming.

We checked flight options at the same time and to maximise our time in the parks, we are flying the Sunday night then returning Friday afternoon. We are flying with EasyJet from Edinburgh. A quick search on hotel booking sites and we managed to book a night bed and breakfast only at the Santa Fe with hotels.com for £60.93 for our first night so we don’t have to move hotels on the Monday. We will email them before we go to say we have two bookings to see if it will be possible to stay in the same room.

All of this was booked just for the 4 of us in November. By December the next offer of 15% discount and free full board had come out so my parents decided to book to join us too. I called the travel company to get a price to change to the new offer and for only £116 more we could. This included upgrading our room type to a Rio Grande room as we couldn’t just simply switch to the new offer but we know from previous trips that we would have spent more than that on lunches all week so for us it was worth it. Especially since our daughter can eat for free at all the standard buffets. Our total for the 4 nights with full board was now £609.50 so still great value for 4 nights / 5 days in the parks and all out food.

We have booked our airport parking in Edinburgh and also booked our transfer from the airport with Prestige Transfer who we have used twice before.

Food:

Since we have full board included I made a rough plan of which park we would be in each day and which places we wanted to eat. Everyone else is happy to just go along with the plan. We ate at Café Mickey last year so wanted to return before it closes and try Chez Remy. We will just top up our standard vouchers to eat at both of those.

Monday – DLP
Lunch: Plaza
Dinner: Café Mickey

Tuesday – WDS
Lunch: Chez Remy
Dinner: Billy Bob’s

Wednesday – DLP
Lunch: Agrabah Café
Dinner: Plaza Gardens

Thursday – WDS
Lunch: Restaurant des Stars
Dinner: La Cantina

Friday – DLP
Lunch: Earl of Sandwich in the Village

All that is left to do is decide what rides and shows we don’t want to miss. The new parade and illuminations both start the day we arrive so they are on the list as well as Crush’s Coaster as we have yet to ride that in all the times we’ve been. My son should finally be tall enough for both Thunder Mountain and Star Tour so I’m looking forward to taking him on them. I love Tower of Terror and as Peter Pan was closed last year I’m looking forward to taking my daughter on that too.

Purchases:

I finally got my hands on one of the Primark chalkboards so that’s showing our countdown!

I’ve also got me, my son and daughter a few tops to wear. The t-shirts will also be taken to Hong Kong when we go.

The most recent purchase I’ve made is some Ears from The Merry Ear Market, I can’t wait to wear them.

This is my first The Siblings Project post, linking up to Dear Beautiful. I try to take a lot of photos of the kids together, especially when we have events, and as often as I can, but hopefully this will help when we don’t have many plans.

February is birthday month for both Holden (1st Feb) & Eden (12th Feb) so lots of opportunities for them together between birthdays, their parties and days out. They both love animals and that has definitely been the running theme this month as Holden wanted an animal birthday party and Eden asked to be able to feed lemurs at the zoo on her actual birthday!

At Holden’s 6th Birthday PartyReady for Eden’s 3rd Birthday PartyFeeding the lemurs at Five Sisters Zoo on Eden’s 3rd BirthdayReady for another party

I waited to publish this post until after the 22nd as on that day, Eden was exactly half Holden’s age. She was 3 years + 11 days, the same age Holden was when she was born and he was 6 years + 22 days. I thought that was a fun fact to note as it would be the only time it happens.

Hello and welcome to my new blog What Gaynor Did Next. I’m Gaynor, a 36 year old wife, mum of two, and an Architect, living near Edinburgh. I married Graham in 2010 and we now have two children, a son called Holden (6) and a daughter called Eden (3).

I started my first blog Our Day by Design back in 2009 when I was planning our wedding and documented the whole process. I continued to write about our life when Holden was born then Eden, however, lately it just hasn’t felt like the right place to write about what we are up to now.

We have always loved to travel and visit new places. Our very first holiday together was all the way to Australia in 2003. We have been all over the world since then and we spent our honeymoon in Sri Lanka and the Maldives (getting an extra 5 nights due to the ash cloud) then our first anniversary in Bratislava and Vienna. Our first anniversary gift to each other was a travel map which we made and we are still adding to it now, just with different coloured pins for the kids. Holden’s very first trip on a plane, at 7 months, was all the way to Perth in Australia, nothing like starting small! Eden didn’t get left out as we took her to Dubai for her first flight at only 6 weeks old (yes people thought I was nuts!)

I have lots of adventures to document from all of our travels together, some that we took with Holden as a baby, a toddler, then with Eden as a baby and now with two children so this feels like a good place to start as well as writing about our daily adventures as a family of 4.

Our most recent big trip was to Dubai and Hong Kong in May 2017 {before we were restricted by school holidays} which took my countries visited to 30 however we also went to Center Parcs, Disneyland Paris, Buckinghamshire and Boat of Garten last year. Our next stop, and the first of 2018, will be Iceland in April.